Rubber shoes saved boy from shark attack
● Boy, 12, needed 53 stitches after being savaged on Bahamas holiday
A Scottish schoolboy survived a terrifying ‘Jaws’ style shark attack thanks to his rubber swimming shoes blunting the creature’s bite.
Shane Mcconnell suffered serious injuries to both legs when a vicious bull shark attacked him in the Bahamas.
The Edinburgh boy had to have 53 stitches inserted in his wounds and endured multiple injections of powerful painkillers. Shane, 12, told how he cried for help when he saw the predator in the water beside him. “I think it thought I was food thrown in for it.”
Most tourists return from their holidays with selfies, t-shirts and fridge magnets as souvenirs.
But 12-year-old Shane Mcconnell has a shredded rubber swimming shoe to remind him of the moment that he might have lost his life after being bitten by one of nature’s most fearsome predators.
The Scottish schoolboy from Balerno suffered serious injuries to both legs when a vicious bull shark – one of the inspirations behind Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster movie Jaws – attacked him in a harbour on Bimini Island in the Bahamas earlier this month. Doctors who treated him believe he could have suffered much more serious lifethreatening injuries if he had not been wearing tough neopreneswimming shoes, which absorbed half the impact of the shark’s razor-sharp teeth.
Shane had to have 53 stitches inserted in his wounds and endured multiple injections of powerful painkillers.
Bull sharks can grow up to 12ft in length. The species has been responsible for 27 known fatal attacks.
Shane had been walking on the harbourside after a day snorkelling on 5 April with his parents and brothers Jamie, 14, and nine-year-old Kyle when he tripped and fell into the water.
He told how he cried for help when he saw the deadly predator in the water beside him .“I saw half a shark’s body come out of the water,” he said.
“I saw its tail and fin. It was big and it was grey. I was splashing a lot and I think it thought I was food thrown in for it. I felt it brush my hand – I thought it had missed me.”
As he made his escape, Shane did not notice the beast had circled round and sunk its teeth deep into his feet.
“I swam to the ladder and climbed out,” he said. “All the security men on the docks were suddenly surrounding me. They laid me down, and wrapped white towels around both my feet. The shark had got me, but I didn’t know it until then.
“I wasn’t in pain. I couldn’t feel anything, but my legs were shaking a lot.”
Despite the terrifying attack, the young survivor still wants to realise his dream of becoming a marine biologist. He said: “David Attenborough is my idol and I have watched Blue Planet many times… I am happiest when I’m in the ocean.”